Wind Farms Might Kill Bald Eagles, But They Don’t Hurt Home Prices

Wind farms have long suffered a love-hate relationship with the public. Some people love the emission-free energy they produce, and the fact that they can switch on the lights using electrons made by air molecules moving through space. Others hate wind turbines for killing eagles, hawks and bats. Some people who live near wind farms – or proposed wind farms – complain about noise from the turbines and worry that their property values could suffer if a new wind farm moves into the neighborhood.

This last worry – about property value loss — appears unfounded, according to a study released Friday by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the University of Connecticut. After analyzing more than 122,000 home sales in urban areas near 26 wind farms in Massachusetts, the researchers concluded that there was no statistical evidence that wind farms impact the value of nearby urban properties.

Interestingly, researchers found that in some cases, the announcement of a new wind farm may have contributed to a drop in some home prices. But after construction was completed, home prices appeared to be unaffected, according to the study.

That’s good news for the wind industry.

U.S. wind power capacity is likely to grow by 9% in 2014 to about 66,000 megawatts, and jump an additional 15% to 75,000 megawatts by the end of 2015, according to a Tuesday forecast by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Wind farms aside, the Lawrence Berkeley study found that Massachusetts home prices did appear to suffer if a property was near a landfill, power transmission line, highway or prison. Conversely, home values tended to be higher for properties near a beach or park, according to one of the study’s less-surprising findings.

Comments (5 of 29)

If there is no impact to property values, the wind developer should be happy to provide a property value guarantee.

6:33 pm March 6, 2014

Brian Glenn wrote:

I don't buy it. There are just too many citizens opposed to either wind-farms on principle or any adjacent infrastructure near their homes (maybe not you, but others). Perhaps a floor price exists beneith NE houses where these concerns fade. But upside appreciation in home value and turn-over time for those on sale will be favorably skewed to those not located next to wind turbines. BTW, on a BTU / KWt equivalent basis, natgas derived electricity is economically superior. So why should rate-payers bear the burden of cost for these facilities (esp since they kill Bald Eagles etc. ) ?

7:07 am January 15, 2014

Shocked Home Owner wrote:

Total waste of taxpayers money to produce a report from Non Credentialed, Non Real Estate Appraisers and who paid no attention to the actual impact to home values.

We live within 2 miles of a proposed wind farm, trying to sell our house and have seen the price drop almost $200,000. Real estate agents and the buying public are not interested in homes near commercial wind farms.

Being paid by the MassCec (the state of Massachusetts renewable energy pusher) makes the report a total sham.

Independent studies are needed to protect the property and health of all Americans !!!!

7:46 pm January 13, 2014

Walter wrote:

Dear Cassandra Sweet:

RE: Bad News for Bald Eagles but Good News for Wind Farms

Any common sense reflection suggests that living near a wind turbine, even without noise, will affect property values of those adjacent by limiting the market audience that would otherwise be interested in that property but do not wish to view them daily. Further the turbines do not need to even exist to affect the market value, as we have seen in Shelburne Falls Massachusetts where pending property and retirement sales were abruptly and publicly terminated based only on the expressed intent of a wind developer seeking zoning approval.

In addition is not just small numbers of people that are affected by wind turbines, the tax base ripple effect is instantly an entire community issue where all will share in the diminution of the always fragile community tax base.

McCann is a Chicago based appraiser who has studied and appraised wind project impacts on property values from coast to coast, and has qualified and testified as an expert witness on this subject before various zoning boards, siting committees and litigated cases.

Without speaking for Mr., McCann I believe he would hold the view that the CEC Hoen study comes from industrial wind biased and linked authors, a reality I have personally concluded by reading Mr. Hoen’s previous studies and by a personal interaction with him.

The study does not address nor answer the basic By Law question of what are industrial wind impacts on local and adjacent abutters. The CEC/Hoen study lacks transparency without a single property sale being identified. The data significance is obscured and significantly skewed by large numbers of irrelevant and distant property sales.

You would find that the Industry standard data and approach was not used in the CEC Hoen Study and the hedonic method used has been rejected by US court of Appeals.

In my opinion you risk wide spread harm to your reputation by such shallow reviewing of your sources. Quoting only the single source and not including easily accessible alternative credentialed reviews does not in my humble view exempt you from my/our criticism.

Deep down you simply must realize that something is seriously awry with this CEC Hone report?

Walter
Massachusetts

4:02 pm January 13, 2014

Vermonter wrote:

This is the only WSJ article on wind I have seen (as a subscriber I read them all) that contains zero pro-wind comments. Where is Michael Goggins of AWEA disputing what the residents of so many states are saying? Where is the usual WSJ pro-winder from Australia arguing against the experiences of people who have been forced to live next to these big machines? Perhaps, with the death of the PTC, we are seeing the fight go out of the wind industry. I hope so. Now it is time to clean up the mess they have left in their wake and shut down the machines so people can sleep. And sell their properties if they so choose.